How SAP hit the Innovation Jackpot

It's been a hugely successful year for SAP, from its flagship event, SAP Spend Connect Live, to a number of award wins. 

Now, the company has retained its number-one position for market share for Procurement Applications, according to the IDC Worldwide Procurement Applications Market Shares 2023 report. IDC estimates that SAP holds a 27.3% market share for 2023, maintaining the top spot ahead of the next six vendors combined.

Jeff Collier, Chief Revenue Officer for SAP Intelligent Spend and Business Network, was a central figure at SAP Spend Connect, where nearly 1,400 customers and partners came together to witness the power of SAP's spend management and business network solutions at SAP Spend Connect Live.

Jeff said: "Best of all, attendees left with new ways to enhance productivity, strategically collaborate, ensure effortless compliance and gain critical business insights."

SAP's newly-unveiled innovations

SAP Ariba Intake Management is its newest solution, helping teams to automate procurement request creation and orchestrate routing and support across diverse procurement landscapes and complex workflows.

It connects different systems into a central location for procurement inquiries and status updates, so employees can adhere to organisations' policies and comply with necessary regulations.

SAP's generative AI copilot, Joule, will be seamlessly integrated across SAP Ariba solutions, SAP Business Network and SAP Fieldglass solutions. Joule enables users to manage their most important tasks quickly and accurately across all areas of SAP's spend management portfolio.

The promoted subscription for SAP Business Network can empower suppliers to find new business, improve match potential and build relationships with buyers using the network catalogue. Available early next year, it includes Gen AI tools to help suppliers load their full suite of offerings into the network catalogue faster and with enhanced product descriptions and summaries.

New analytics capabilities in SAP Fieldglass solutions can deliver next-level insights for reporting, analytics and market insights.

Joining SAP leadership on stage were leaders from Goldman Sachs, Kraft-Heinz, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Uber and Warner Music Group, who all shared how they revolutionised their spend management processes with SAP's solutions.

Visit Procurement Magazine for more coverage from the show.

SAP: Number one market share for Procurement Applications

SAP prides itself on its dedication to helping its customers increase control and business resilience by comprehensively managing all sources of spend.

Jeff revealed: "Hard work pays off, as SAP has retained the No.1 position for market share with 49.6% of 2023 market share for Travel and Expense Management Software, according to the IDC Worldwide Travel and Expense Management Software Market Shares 2023 report. This is growth from our 2022 market share of 49.4%.

"Also exciting, SAP has retained the No.1 position for market share for Procurement Applications, according to the IDC Worldwide Procurement Applications Market Shares 2023 report. IDC estimates that SAP holds a 27.3% market share for 2023, maintaining the top spot ahead of the next six vendors combined.

"Additionally, we're honoured to win two IDC SaaS CSAT awards for Accounts Payable and Contract Lifecycle Management. These awards recognise the leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors in each application market, across 23 markets, that receive the highest customer satisfaction scores based on IDC's SaaSPath Survey."

SAP: a G2 leader

Jeff also said that Q3 was its most successful quarter yet in terms of G2 honours, with SAP Ariba, SAP Business Network, SAP Concur and SAP Fieldglass bringing in a whopping 93 awards across multiple categories at the Fall 2024 G2 awards. 

SAP was named a Leader in the following categories:

• SAP Ariba is a G2 Fall 2024 Leader in Procure to Pay, Strategic Sourcing, and Supplier Relationship Management
• SAP Business Network is a G2 Fall 2024 Leader in Supply Chain Business Networks
• SAP Concur is a G2 Fall 2024 Leader in Expense, Travel & Expense, and Invoicing
• SAP Fieldglass is a G2 Fall 2024 Leader in Vendor Management.

SAP Ariba, SAP Concur and SAP Fieldglass have also won Buyer's Choice awards from TrustRadius. Winners of a Buyer's Choice award are determined by 75% of reviewers selecting a solution for best capabilities, best value for price and best customer relationship.

Award-winning customers

It is not just SAP winning awards, but the companies it supports as well.

Daniel Chapman of Warner Music, who was on stage during Spend Connect Live, won a SIG Future of Sourcing award in the Innovation in Sourcing category for its work with SAP. 

"This award recognises organisations and individuals that show innovation, leadership and transformation in categories critical to the sourcing industry and we couldn't be happier about this win," Jeff added.

Capgemini, another SAP user, won the prestigious SuperNova2024 award from Constellation Research in the Future of Work: Human Capital Management category.

The award recognises Capgemini's innovative use of SAP Fieldglass Contingent Workforce Management to optimise its global external workforce, resulting in improved efficiency, cost savings and quality standards.

Looking ahead

Jeff concluded by thanking customers and with a look ahead to next year: "With 2025 just around the corner, I want to thank our customers for betting big on themselves by investing in our cutting-edge spend management and business network solutions.

"In a time marked by supply chain disruptions and ongoing economic uncertainty, it's all too easy for businesses to stick with the status quo. However, SAP customers are different. They tackle obstacles head-on, transforming them into opportunities. And their foresight to plan for the future is why they will continue to be successful.

"Thank you for choosing SAP to help solve your biggest challenges. I enjoyed seeing so many of you at SAP Spend Connect Live and I can't wait to catch up with the rest of you on the road."

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